All about Chess [ Rules, History, … ]

O chess is a recreational game but also a sport, which is played on a board. This game is one of the most, if not the most popular and well-known among board games all over the world, being considered a strategy and intelligence game, and a good player must already advance what the moves his opponent will make.

History of Chess

The origin of chess is something that is debated and there is not really a consensus on its origin or even the history of chess, from the old to the present.

Some say that versions of chess and its board date back from Ancient Egypt or Dynastic China, but its most supported origin is that it first appeared in India around the 6th century, at that time it would have the name of Chaturanga.

Over time, it eventually reached Persia and its name eventually changed, being now called Xatranje, probably having other rules as well.

It eventually spread throughout Europe slowly and it took about 500 years for Xatranje to begin to look more like the chess we know today.

In the yoer of 1475 began to be consolidated with the current rules and its name also eventually changed to chess but it still took a few hundred years for Europe to play with the most modern pieces and rules as well.

In the middle of the nineteenth century began to appear tournaments and chess competitions, thus giving rise to a sport, which was always dominated by the same players and had World champions who maintained their reign for long periods, 20 / 30 years for example.

Chess game

The game of Chess aims to give the “mate” in the king of the opponent player. This happens in the following situations:

The king can not move to any house (they are all in the attack line of the opponent’s pieces);

If any of these conditions arise, then the “mate” or “checkmate” will occur and the game ends, winning the player who applied the “mate”.

Board and Chess Pieces

The chessboard is composed of squares of white and black color (8 squares of length on each side), being these always alternating.

The pieces also have the same colors and each color corresponds to the pieces of a player.

The board should be positioned so the last house on the right side of the row closest to each player is a white square.

The game of chess consists of the following pieces:

Pawn

Tower

Horse

Queen

Bishop

Rei

The pieces have their own order to be placed on the board (Follow the positions that are represented in the image);

Please note: The position of the King and Queen changes depending on the player, following the rule:

White King – Black House
Black King – White House
White Queen – White House
Black Queen – Black House

Who starts playing is always the player who owns the white pieces.

Chess Moves / Plays

Each piece has its unique way of moving around on the board, which enables a very large number of patterns and strategies, making chess a strategy sport and more interesting.

The possible plays per house piece are:

Pawn
This can only just move forward (no more part has this rule), being that it can only advance 1 home in front, or 2 if it has never been tweaked. It is also the only one that moves differently when it is to take the opponent’s piece, and he can only take the piece that is diagonally forward.

Tower
The tower has a fairly simple movement. It can move forward, backward, left or right in a straight line across the entire board as long as it has the path without any part.

Horse
The horse is the one that has the most unique movement. It can only move in L. format. This means that you can only walk two houses forward and one to the side at each move. This piece can already make your move jumping over other pieces (it’s the only one with this rule).

Bishop
The bishop has a movement similar to that of the Tower, only the latter, instead of moving in a straight line, moves diagonally, and can not pass over any part either.

Queen
This is considered the most powerful piece of Chess, this due to its versatility of movements since it can make the same movements of the Tower and the Bishop.

Rei
The King can move 1 each in all directions. The only restriction that this has is not being able to go to a house that is “check” (in the line of attack) by some part of the opponent.

Special Moves

There are certain moves that can be made under special circumstances that make this magnificent game even more interesting and competitive. The special plays that exist are:

Pedestrian Promotion

When you can get one of your pawns to reach the end of the board (on the first line of the opponent), the pawn must be replaced by another piece (being a bishop, tower, queen, or horse), and is usually chosen the queen since it is the most powerful piece of the game.

Roque

It consists of a movement between the king and the queen, who change positions at the same time, in an attempt to defend the king by taking it from the center of the board and move the tower to a better position of attack.

In this movement, the king moves toward the tower two houses and the tower moves to the king’s side passing over him. There are two rocks: the small and the large, the only difference being its designation. The big rock is when the rock is made with the tower farthest from the king and the small is the opposite.

To make this move, certain conditions must be met:

The king could not have moved;

The tower can not have been moved;

The way between the tower and the king must be clean;

The king can not stand in a position that is in the line of attack of the enemy;

Passing

This is a special way for the pawn to move and can take the opponent’s pawn that passed next to him when he is in the 5 row counting from his field. Observe the images to better understand the move.

For this move there are also special conditions, which are:

Your pawn should be in the 5 row

The pawn of the opponent has advanced two houses and thus have stayed next to his;

Some Chess Rules

Chess also has some rules. Let’s just highlight the main rules that are usually addressed.

When a player lifts a piece, it may place it anywhere that is valid for the movement of that piece. After landing the piece cannot be removed, only if it has made an invalid movement.

When promoting a pawn, the player can touch a piece that is outside the board and change for his pawn, thus finishing the move;

During the Roque the player must first take the King and then in the Tower thus making their exchange of positions. If you touch both at the same time you can do it. If this one raises the King with the intention to make the Roque but this is impossible, then it must move the King to a valid house.

Players must not speak during the game, only when asking for a tie or advising the referee of any infraction. In games between amateurs it is common to announce the “check” but among professionals, the same should not be announced.